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14422HP Affirms Higher-End Layoffs Figurehttp://allthingsd.com/20131231/hp-affirms-higher-end-layoffs-figure/
http://allthingsd.com/20131231/hp-affirms-higher-end-layoffs-figure/#commentsTue, 31 Dec 2013 17:38:45 +0000http://allthingsd.com/?p=382222Hewlett-Packard Co. confirmed it has increased by 5,000 the number of layoffs it plans to implement under the restructuring plan it adopted in May 2012, bringing the expected number of job cuts to 34,000.

When the company first announced the plan, it targeted the number of job eliminations at 27,000 by October 2014 and later raised the figure to 29,000. But HP had suggested at its analyst meeting in October and again during its quarterly earnings call in late November that the cuts would affect 33,000 to 34,000 people.

]]>http://allthingsd.com/20131231/hp-affirms-higher-end-layoffs-figure/feed/0Apple Feud Deepens With Court-Appointed Monitorhttp://allthingsd.com/20131231/apple-feud-deepens-with-court-appointed-monitor/
http://allthingsd.com/20131231/apple-feud-deepens-with-court-appointed-monitor/#commentsTue, 31 Dec 2013 11:22:55 +0000http://allthingsd.com/?p=382196A feud between Apple Inc. and a lawyer appointed by a federal court judge to monitor the company’s e-book pricing reform became even more acrimonious Monday.

Michael Bromwich, the lawyer picked as Apple’s monitor, said in court documents filed Monday that Apple’s characterization of his team’s activities as a “roving investigation” in fact “bear no relation whatsoever to the activities we have attempted to conduct.”

]]>http://allthingsd.com/20131231/apple-feud-deepens-with-court-appointed-monitor/feed/0The NSA and the Corrosion of Silicon Valleyhttp://allthingsd.com/20131230/the-nsa-and-silicon-valley/
http://allthingsd.com/20131230/the-nsa-and-silicon-valley/#commentsMon, 30 Dec 2013 23:57:41 +0000http://allthingsd.com/?p=382160I believe that the people who work at the NSA are patriots. They devote their considerable intellects to preserve, protect, and defend the people of the United States. I wish their patriotism + brainpower would do the same for the U.S. Constitution. But those issues are getting plenty of ink elsewhere.

My concern is more personal and local: The NSA’s version of patriotism is corroding Silicon Valley. Integrity of our products, creative freedom of talented people, and trust with our users are the casualties. The dolphin in the tuna net is us — our industry, our work, and the social fabric of our community.

Product integrity is doomed when the NSA involves itself in the product development process. The scope of NSA’s activity here is unknowable. But what I hear from founders and other investors — never mind Reuters’ reporting about RSA Security, and Spiegel’s about backdoors in networking products — is beyond my worst expectations.

President Obama’s Review Group on Intelligence learned enough about the matter to give it a prominent place in their Dec. 12 report. A key recommendation: “the US Government should … not in any way subvert, undermine, weaken, or make vulnerable generally available commercial software.”

It’s incredible to me that this needs to be said at all. That it was phrased as a recommendation by a panel of professors and retired government officials rather than as an imperative truth shouted by Silicon Valley itself is sad. Truthful products come from the union of founders’ values and users’ needs. Letting NSA add “features” strips integrity away; it creates deceitful, incoherent products. Our ambition must be the opposite.

Inside our companies and research centers, talented minds are being conscripted into surveillance. Think about the software developers who wrote the code behind your email service. Or the team who built the guts of a blogging service’s geolocation features. Not one of them chose to work for the NSA. But their work has been co-opted, effectively turned into surveillance tools. The freedom of talented people to work for whom they choose, building what they choose, for the purpose they choose is being deleted. This is another deep violation of our community’s social fabric.

All this leads back to trust. Billions of people let Silicon Valley into their daily lives and they hug it close. They trust our products to find information, to get work done, to talk to each other, to buy and sell stuff, and to have fun. That trust is a decades-old endowment built up by inventor-founders from Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore through to the present day. The magic of compound growth works in our favor when trust is accumulating. But now we are making trust withdrawals every day as people around the world learn how the NSA has woven surveillance, search, and seizure into and around our products. This is the painful flip side of compound growth: The trust withdrawals compound, too.

Silicon Valley’s promise to people is simple and compelling: “We’ll build a bunch of things. Try our work; keep what you love, dump what you don’t love. We’ll learn from it and build on the stuff that you like best.” Sadly, the NSA undermines the promise at its foundation.

We do have options. Modify our user agreements to reinforce users’ property rights and expectations of privacy in their data to address the so-called “third-party doctrine.” Make architecture and encryption decisions that defend against upstream surveillance at the backbone. Appeal objectionable collection orders under Section 215 of the Patriot Act to the full Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), the FISC Court of Review, and the Supreme Court, if necessary. Appeal National Security Letters (NSLs) in federal court if you believe warrantless requests for information are toxic to your values and your work.

All of us — founders, CEOs, boards, citizens — are allowed to hold opinions about what is right, and we can exercise our rights and freedoms to act accordingly. God knows we take full advantage of the rights and freedoms in the tax code; we should be at least as creative and engaged when it comes to existential threats to our work.

Smart patriots of the NSA are struggling with a basic question: Of all the ways to get a critical job done, which ways line up with our founding values? The NSA’s answer is deadly to Silicon Valley’s life’s work. That is 100 percent unacceptable.

Michael Dearing (@mcgd) is a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley and a consulting associate professor at Stanford University.

]]>http://allthingsd.com/20131230/the-nsa-and-silicon-valley/feed/0Acer Sees Senior Executive Departureshttp://allthingsd.com/20131230/acer-sees-senior-executive-departures/
http://allthingsd.com/20131230/acer-sees-senior-executive-departures/#commentsMon, 30 Dec 2013 16:33:18 +0000http://allthingsd.com/?p=382065Acer Inc. said Monday that three senior executives had recently left the company and some of them won’t be replaced as the embattled personal-computer maker tries to keep costs low.

The management changes are the latest of Acer’s efforts to pull itself out of a major crisis as sales of tablets and smartphones eclipse those of personal computers.

]]>http://allthingsd.com/20131230/acer-sees-senior-executive-departures/feed/0LG to Unveil webOS-Powered TVhttp://allthingsd.com/20131230/lg-to-unveil-webos-powered-tv/
http://allthingsd.com/20131230/lg-to-unveil-webos-powered-tv/#commentsMon, 30 Dec 2013 13:00:15 +0000http://allthingsd.com/?p=382063South Korea’s LG Electronics Inc. will soon take the veils off a television model that will run on the webOS operating system, highlighting its ambition of creating a prominent operating system for so-called smart TVs.

LG bought webOS, a mobile-device operating system, from Hewlett-Packard Co. earlier this year. The operating system was originally developed by Palm Inc. to power smartphones that would compete with the likes of Apple Inc.’s iPhones. H-P acquired Palm in 2010 and used webOS to power a tablet and its smartphone models. But the system failed to gain traction with the developers who write apps for devices and the devices didn’t sell well.

]]>http://allthingsd.com/20131230/lg-to-unveil-webos-powered-tv/feed/0Google, Apple Forge Auto Tieshttp://allthingsd.com/20131229/google-apple-forge-auto-ties/
http://allthingsd.com/20131229/google-apple-forge-auto-ties/#commentsMon, 30 Dec 2013 04:45:45 +0000http://allthingsd.com/?p=382004Technology giants Google and Apple are about to expand their battle for digital supremacy to a new front: The automobile.

Next week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Google and German auto maker Audi plan to announce that they are working together to develop in-car entertainment and information systems that are based on Google’s Android software, people familiar with the matter said.

]]>http://allthingsd.com/20131229/google-apple-forge-auto-ties/feed/0NSA Struggles to Make Sense of Flood of Surveillance Datahttp://allthingsd.com/20131228/nsa-struggles-to-make-sense-of-flood-of-surveillance-data/
http://allthingsd.com/20131228/nsa-struggles-to-make-sense-of-flood-of-surveillance-data/#commentsSun, 29 Dec 2013 02:00:18 +0000http://allthingsd.com/?p=381962William Binney, creator of some of the computer code used by the National Security Agency to snoop on Internet traffic around the world, delivered an unusual message at a recent privacy conference to an audience worried that the spy agency knows too much.

It knows so much, he said, that it can’t understand what it has.

“What they are doing is making themselves dysfunctional by taking all this data,” Mr. Binney said.

Shares of the microblogging site tumbled $9.56, or 13 percent, to $63.75, taking a dent out of the big gains that accumulated since the San Francisco company’s initial public offering in early November. The drop wiped away about $5.2 billion in Twitter’s market capitalization, or a little less than twice that of J.C. Penney Co.

An analyst downgrade and worries about the stock’s valuation ignited Friday’s drop, burning many of the investors who had piled into the stock in recent days.

]]>http://allthingsd.com/20131227/twitter-reverses-rally-as-shares-dive/feed/0Judge Says NSA Phone Surveillance Is Legalhttp://allthingsd.com/20131227/judge-says-nsa-phone-surveillance-is-legal/
http://allthingsd.com/20131227/judge-says-nsa-phone-surveillance-is-legal/#commentsFri, 27 Dec 2013 17:32:14 +0000http://allthingsd.com/?p=381624A federal judge in New York ruled Friday that the National Security Agency’s broad collection of U.S. phone-customer data is lawful, dismissing a complaint filed by the American Civil Liberties Union.

The decision by U.S. District Judge William H. Pauley III came just days after another federal judge, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington, ruled that the NSA program “almost certainly” violated constitutional protections against unreasonable searches.

Back when we had cameras that weren’t in our phones, it would be really strange to just walk up to someone and take a picture of them, or kind of place the camera on the table and try to sneak a picture of someone as they’re ordering food or something.

]]>http://allthingsd.com/20131227/qotd-sneaky-snaps/feed/0Technology Fuels New Police Cruiserhttp://allthingsd.com/20131226/technology-fuels-new-police-cruiser/
http://allthingsd.com/20131226/technology-fuels-new-police-cruiser/#commentsThu, 26 Dec 2013 22:57:44 +0000http://allthingsd.com/?p=381172To the untrained eye, it looks like almost any other New York Police Department cruiser combing the city’s streets — but this squad car has just as much brains as it does brawn.

It is the department’s prototype “smart car,” outfitted with the latest gadgets in public safety. It has two infrared monitors mounted on the trunk that record any numbers it sees — such as license plates and addresses. It has surveillance cameras and air sensors capable of sending real-time information to police headquarters. The NYPD says it is the cruiser of the very near future.

LightSquared, which has been at the center of a fight for control between hedge fund manager Phil Falcone and Dish Network Corp.’s Charlie Ergen, filed a new plan to exit Chapter 11 proceedings on Tuesday night, with more than $4 billion of debt-and equity backing from Fortress, Melody and existing investors J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Mr. Falcone’s Harbinger Capital Partners.

]]>http://allthingsd.com/20131224/online-sales-jumped-37-percent-during-weekend/feed/0It's the Thought That Counts (Comic)http://allthingsd.com/20131224/its-the-thought-that-counts-comic/
http://allthingsd.com/20131224/its-the-thought-that-counts-comic/#commentsTue, 24 Dec 2013 19:55:44 +0000http://allthingsd.com/?p=380970
]]>http://allthingsd.com/20131224/its-the-thought-that-counts-comic/feed/0Scores of Music Services Stream Into Crowded Fieldhttp://allthingsd.com/20131224/scores-of-music-services-stream-into-crowded-field/
http://allthingsd.com/20131224/scores-of-music-services-stream-into-crowded-field/#commentsTue, 24 Dec 2013 18:38:23 +0000http://allthingsd.com/?p=380957The number of music-streaming services is set to explode next year, as record labels have warmed up to the idea of renting consumers access to a vast collection of tunes, rather than selling them individual albums or songs.

Dozens of companies — from household brands to music-focused startups — plan to begin offering new services in 2014, according to companies that they have hired to help launch and operate them.

]]>http://allthingsd.com/20131224/scores-of-music-services-stream-into-crowded-field/feed/0Samsung Phone Studied for Possible Security Gaphttp://allthingsd.com/20131224/samsung-phone-studied-for-possible-security-gap/
http://allthingsd.com/20131224/samsung-phone-studied-for-possible-security-gap/#commentsTue, 24 Dec 2013 13:30:01 +0000http://allthingsd.com/?p=380918The security platform for Samsung Electronics Co.’s best-selling Galaxy S4 smartphone suffers from a vulnerability that could allow malicious software to track emails and record data communications, according to cybersecurity researchers at Israel’s Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

The alleged security gap, which the researchers say they discovered earlier this month, comes as Samsung pitches the new security platform called Knox to potential clients at the U.S. Department of Defense and other government and corporate entities, in a bid to compete with BlackBerry Ltd., whose devices have been considered the gold standard among security-conscious clients for years.

]]>http://allthingsd.com/20131224/samsung-phone-studied-for-possible-security-gap/feed/0QOTD: Now You See It …http://allthingsd.com/20131224/qotd-data-death/
http://allthingsd.com/20131224/qotd-data-death/#commentsTue, 24 Dec 2013 13:25:19 +0000http://allthingsd.com/?p=380935

]]>http://allthingsd.com/20131224/qotd-data-death/feed/0Target Discusses Breach With State Attorneyshttp://allthingsd.com/20131223/target-discusses-breach-with-state-attorneys/
http://allthingsd.com/20131223/target-discusses-breach-with-state-attorneys/#commentsTue, 24 Dec 2013 00:46:02 +0000http://allthingsd.com/?p=380842Target Corp. Monday moved to allay rising concerns from state attorneys general over its 20-day security breach.

On Monday, Target’s general counsel Tim Baer held a 30-minute call with several attorneys general that discussed the status of the investigation and the specific information that was breached, according to a person familiar with the call. Another call between the parties has been scheduled for just after the New Year, this person said. It was unclear how many authorities were on the call.

]]>http://allthingsd.com/20131223/target-discusses-breach-with-state-attorneys/feed/0Google’s Schaft Robot Dominates Pentagon Contesthttp://allthingsd.com/20131223/googles-schaft-robot-dominates-pentagon-contest/
http://allthingsd.com/20131223/googles-schaft-robot-dominates-pentagon-contest/#commentsMon, 23 Dec 2013 23:01:22 +0000http://allthingsd.com/?p=380724It may not be the prettiest robot on the scene, but the angular blue creation from Google’s newly acquired Japanese startup is poised to secure more Pentagon funding to develop a creation capable of venturing into dangerous disaster zones to help humans.

Schaft’s robot dominated the two-day Pentagon Robotics Challenge Trials this weekend in Florida, where 16 teams competed at the Nascar race track south of Miami for one of eight slots to secure more federal development funds. The Pentagon set up a kind of robot Boot Camp, where the entrees had to run through a series of eight tests, from turning off a value and opening a series of doors to removing “debris” and driving an all-terrain-vehicle.

]]>http://allthingsd.com/20131223/googles-schaft-robot-dominates-pentagon-contest/feed/0With New Outsourcing Deal, BlackBerry Cancels Two Phoneshttp://allthingsd.com/20131223/with-new-outsourcing-deal-blackberry-cancels-two-phones/
http://allthingsd.com/20131223/with-new-outsourcing-deal-blackberry-cancels-two-phones/#commentsMon, 23 Dec 2013 21:04:06 +0000http://allthingsd.com/?p=380672A small item from BlackBerry’s earnings-related filing Friday got lost in the news of its hardware partnership with Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology Group–sales of its new phones have been so bad that BlackBerry was forced to cancel the rollout of two not-yet-released phones.

BlackBerry’s announcement Friday that it will start outsourcing its hardware business to Foxconn was greeted with enthusiasm by investors, who pushed that stock up 15.5 percent. In late Monday, the stock was up another 3.3 percent.

]]>http://allthingsd.com/20131223/with-new-outsourcing-deal-blackberry-cancels-two-phones/feed/0For Health Coverage Starting January 1, Deadline Extended a Dayhttp://allthingsd.com/20131223/for-health-coverage-starting-jan-1-deadline-extended-a-day/
http://allthingsd.com/20131223/for-health-coverage-starting-jan-1-deadline-extended-a-day/#commentsMon, 23 Dec 2013 20:24:16 +0000http://allthingsd.com/?p=380657Federal officials delayed the deadline to sign up for Jan. 1 coverage through the end of Christmas Eve.

The deadline was originally set for midnight on Dec. 23, but contractors managing the site changed configurations to allow users to sign up for the first wave of health-law coverage through Dec. 24, people familiar with the matter said.

]]>http://allthingsd.com/20131223/tribune-buys-gracenote-from-sony/feed/0There's a New Deliveryman in Townhttp://allthingsd.com/20131223/theres-a-new-deliveryman-in-town/
http://allthingsd.com/20131223/theres-a-new-deliveryman-in-town/#commentsMon, 23 Dec 2013 14:18:28 +0000http://allthingsd.com/?p=380540Mike Harper, a TriBeCa doorman, remembers Christmas Eve three years ago as a turning point in his career. At 7:30 pm, he watched in awe as a United Parcel Service Inc. deliveryman carted 27 packages into the lobby of his building near the corner of Duane and Hudson streets.

“Someone was doing some last-minute shopping,” recalled Mr. Harper, 60 years old, who has worked at the building for nine years. He logged the arrivals in a notebook, stacked the packages neatly and kept watch over them.

The pace has picked up since then for Mr. Harper and the city’s thousands of doormen as the boom in online commerce during the holiday season has turned them into their buildings’ de facto postal clerks. They are expected to shepherd and track a constant flow of boxes from FedEx, UPS and the U.S. Postal Service through their lobbies — and are sometimes conscripted into a crucial, late-stage role in the gifting process.

]]>http://allthingsd.com/20131223/theres-a-new-deliveryman-in-town/feed/0Rampant Returns Plague E-Retailershttp://allthingsd.com/20131223/rampant-returns-plague-e-retailers/
http://allthingsd.com/20131223/rampant-returns-plague-e-retailers/#commentsMon, 23 Dec 2013 12:00:28 +0000http://allthingsd.com/?p=380510Free shipping and lenient return policies have given online retailing a huge boost. Now, chains are mining their order data to get shoppers to keep more purchases.

Behind the uptick in e-commerce is a little known secret: As much as a third of all Internet sales gets returned, according to retail consultancy Kurt Salmon. And the tide of goods flowing back to retailers is rising. Shipper United Parcel Service Inc. expects returns to jump 15 percent this season from last year, making them a significant and growing cost for retailers.